Anymore, does Facebook help your business / career? If so, to what extent?

I'll admit, I was never a Facebook fan. First, I'm mostly a private person, but more importantly, I have precious time and spend it fully on building All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. Not to mention, Facebook has not been kind to independent web publishers, causing many to shutter over the years.

My last Facebook post occurred around the time drummer Ralph Peterson passed—it included a link to an archived All About Jazz interview. After three days, it had driven two referrals to AAJ—one was me.

Facebook continues to restrict post reach, which calls into question a post's worth if you don't pay to boost it—which, to me, is impossible to justify. In addition to limiting post reach, they now present an overlay on a non-Facebook link (click) to deter users from leaving, which has reduced their referral traffic to AAJ by 50%. I also noticed they disabled the browser's back button so you can't click back to the previous page. To me, Facebook is no longer relevant to All About Jazz.

I'm curious to learn about your results with Facebook. Is it still worthwhile to you? If so, why and to what extent? Please use the comments section below to add to the Facebook effectiveness discussion.

Yes, there's an ulterior motive for this article. All About Jazz offers several free and affordable promotional services that based on my experience, outperform a boosted Facebook post. If you're curious, you can read about them here.